News Roundup: January 5 - February 6

The Mac App Store launched in early January, pulling an impressive one million app downloads in the first 24 hours of operation. The initial lineup of 1000 apps has expanded considerably over the past few weeks. For gamers and emulation enthusiasts, the impact of the store is still unclear. It is certainly good for the exposure of games on OS X, but could potentially discourage people from looking elsewhere for software that doesn't meet Apple's stringent requirements. The only emulator that seems to have made it past Apple so far is MacWise (a terminal emulator).

Apple's stringent approval policies have come under fire recently, following the listing of an unauthorised clone of Wolfire's Lugaru HD game which severely undercut the price of the original. The developers of this unauthorised version claim to be within the rights of the GPL2 licence under which the source was released back in May, while Wolfire insists that the assets -- graphics, sound, other artwork -- are protected and may not be redistributed. At the time of writing both versions remain on the Mac App Store. Also see the Kotaku post for a more detailed run-down of the issue.

A new(-ish) emulator called OpenEmulator -- not to be confused with Open Emu -- aims to be "an accurate, portable emulator of legacy computer systems." Development efforts are currently focused on implementing a Mac OS X interface and emulating the Apple I and MOS KIM-1 computers, although there is also functional Apple II support. The emulator notably uses a software components framework, which allows the simple addition of expansion devices and peripherals (including virtual monitors). See the official website for more information.

MS-DOS emulator Boxer approaches nearer to its official 1.0 release, reaching 1.0rc1 a few days ago. The 1.0 release promises to be a complete overhaul, with more intuitive game installs, a new interface, support for cover art, better stability and performance, and "much, much more." See the official website for full details and a download link.

More emulator updates after the break.

DOSBox front-end Dapplegrey has been updated to version 2.19.3. This new release fixes issues with the Captures folder setting and the path to the keymapper file, and changes the default joystick setting on newly added games to "auto" instead of "none." Get it here.

Mac-only Commodore 64 emulator VirtualC64 has been updated to version 0.9.4. The new release provides various bug fixes and enhancements, mostly relating to the interface. See the release notes for update details, and the official website for more information about the emulator.

There is a new version of Amiga emulator PUAE, the latest effort to bring/keep Unix-based Amiga emulation on a par with WinUAE. Currently, efforts are focused on getting the code base synchronised with WinUAE. See the project's GitHub repository for more information and source.

Nintendo DS emulator DeSmuME has received a long-awaited update. Version 0.9.7 improves compatibility and fixes various issues with graphics, front-end, and core code. The developers are having some difficulty building the OS X version, though, so us Mac peeps will have to either wait a little longer or use the Windows version. See the official site for more details.

GSport, a new Apple IIgs emulator, has been released. GSport is based on KEGS and aims "to provide a free, open ecosystem for the continuation of cross-platform development of IIgs emulation." It seems to have potential, so head over to the official GSport website and check it out.

Multi-system emulator MESS has been updated to version 0.141. Unfortunately, Mac builds are lagging way behind. If you're feeling confident, head on over to the official MESS website to grab the source code and compile it yourself.

Development on Sony PlayStation emulator PCSX-Reloaded continues at a steady rate, and SpeedofMac is working tirelessly to provide Mac builds that are in-sync with the latest source. Check out the official PCSX-Reloaded website for source code or information about the emulator, and be sure to grab the latest build from SpeedofMac’s website. Also keep an eye on the PCSX-Reloaded MacScene forum thread for discussion and troubleshooting.

A minor update has been released for SDLMAME and MAME. This brings them to version 0.141u1. See here for the release notes.

VirtualBox has been updated to version 4.0.2. This update fixes a number of bugs and issues across all areas of the program. See the changelog for details.

Got any news tips? Let us know on the forums. I’d also like to know if there’s anything else you’d like me to cover, such as (retro-themed?) game releases, productivity software, or iPhone Apps. Hit up the comments if you have any suggestions or requests.